1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a container inspection arrangement for inspecting glass and/or plastic containers, and a method of inspecting glass and/or plastic containers.
2. Background Information
Background information is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily admit that subsequently mentioned information and publications are prior art.
The present application relates to an inspection device for inspecting containers wherein the inspection device comprises at least one transport path and has at least one illumination unit, one camera and one optical structure, and wherein a transparent hollow body is provided which is mounted so as to be rotatable about a center axis, said hollow body being arranged underneath a container to be inspected.
Containers in the meaning of the present application are for example bottles, cans, tubes, pouches, in each case made of glass and/or plastic, and for example also PET bottles, but also other packaging means, for example those suitable for filling with liquid or viscous products.
Devices for the illumination and inspection of container bases are known. Some inspection machines transport containers in a suspended manner over an illumination unit. The illumination unit itself is a rectangular block which shines through the containers from below. In principle, these devices are reliable and suitable, and must or should be simply be cleaned relatively often to essentially guarantee or promote reliable operation and meaningful measured values.
In some devices, the conveyor may be illuminated from below, on which conveyor the bottles to be inspected stand, and the conveyor may be transparent and made as a turntable. Here, the contamination on the illumination unit itself is reduced, but solid and liquid adhesions on the transparent turntable itself likewise require or desire regular cleaning.
Some inspection devices for inspecting containers, for example bottles, may comprise at least one transport path for transporting containers to and away from an illumination unit, an optical measuring unit and a control unit, wherein the illumination unit is enclosed by a transparent hollow body which is mounted so as to be rotatable about a center axis and the hollow body can be motor-driven directly or by suitable operative connections. The hollow body is in one example a pipe which is made of a material or a mix of materials which is transparent for beams of wavelengths in the optically visible range, in the infrared range and/or in the ultraviolet range, wherein the material is at least partially transparent for these beams. In such an inspection device, an internal inspection is carried out using a camera from above through the mouth of the container in the direction of the base. In an embodiment such as this, however, not all of the internal areas of the container, for example a bottle, can be inspected, as shown in FIG. 1 of the present application, so that not all defects or contamination F1 and F2 can be perfectly or substantially perfectly detected.